Friday: My Elf Costume

As I may have mentioned, I work in Catholic healthcare. That means Christmas is taken very, very seriously in my office. We get daily Advent thoughts emailed to us from one of the head nun, all work comes to a full stop for many different Christmas parties (which NEVER happens for anything else), and we as individuals and departments do a lot of charitable giving during the holiday. Every year different departments adopt families in need (as determined by the nuns and by social workers who are handling their cases) and we buy, wrap and give presents (many presents) to each member of the family. We give age-appropriate toys, we are told their age and size to buy them some clothes, and we always give winter coats and mittens.

This year my department adopted two families, each with 4 kids of various ages. Plus we adopted two homebound seniors who had provided a list of wants (note paper, basic necessities, tea, etc). My boss adores Black Friday and went insane buying presents for all of them, and then blocked off two hours this Friday so we could all wrap the gifts. Two hours, 17 people wrapping gifts for 12 people. There were a LOT of gifts.

Clearly, this required the cutest elf-like outfit I could muster up.



(Lord, it is so good to have the rest of my closet again!) I did include the black Gap skinny pants that had been in the challenge, but everything else is a mix of old and new. The scarf is new, a sparkly red infinity scarf I picked up at Nordstrom Rack last weekend with my Groupon. It will be getting a lot of use this holiday season for sure! The red striped top is old, from Gap this summer/fall. The sweater is also Gap, their grandfather cardigan style from earlier this year. Ha, I kind of am a walking Gap ad in this, aren't I?



The boots, OMG, the boots are brand-new for the winter. I saw them last week on Barking Dog Shoes and instantly fell in love. Good winter boots are a requirement in Chicago, and while I like my brown suede-y ones from LL Bean, I really wanted a black pair. These are Dansko Kylees so the foot base is ridiculously comfortable and solid. And I love the knit lining on top that can be folded up or down!



Drinking my MF morning meal. Look at how cute the sparkly scarf is too!



I don't know how I did it because it was not happening as I was blowing it dry, but I ended up having a fabulous hair day too in these photos. Awesome.